EEOC SETTLES ENGLISH-ONLY SUIT FOR $2.44 MILLION AGAINST UNIVERSITY OF INCARNATE WORD

SAN ANTONIO - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today
announced a landmark $2.44 million settlement of a class action lawsuit against the University of
Incarnate Word (UIW), a private university in San Antonio, Texas, on behalf of 18 Hispanic
housekeepers who were subjected to an unlawful English-only rule and harassed due to their
national origin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The settlement, which stems from a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western
District of Texas on September 30, 1999, is the largest known monetary resolution for a lawsuit
concerning an English-only rule in the workplace.

"As employers face the challenge of a rapidly changing workforce, they will serve
themselves well by creating work environments that are conducive to diversity and putting
strategies in place to ease racial and ethnic tensions," said EEOC Chairwoman Ida L. Castro.

As part of the settlement, approved late yesterday as a consent decree by U.S. District Court
Judge Orlando Garcia, UIW will pay $1 million to be distributed among a class of 18 Hispanic
former employees. In addition, UIW agreed to provide 18 tuition waivers for use by the class
members or a close relative. The tuition waivers, valued at $1.44 million, provide for eight full-
time semesters of study at UIW for each recipient.

In addition to the monetary payments, the consent decree calls for a three-year injunction
prohibiting UIW from implementing and enforcing an English-only rule in the workplace and from
discriminating on the basis of national origin.

UIW also agreed to adopt a comprehensive anti-harassment workplace policy and complaint
procedure in English and Spanish. In addition, UIW agreed to train its managers and supervisors
regularly on national origin harassment and other unlawful discriminatory practices.

"For more than 15 years, the EEOC has taken the firm position that English-only rules run
afoul of Title VII when applied at all times or when they cannot be justified by business necessity,"
said Robert B. Harwin, regional attorney of EEOC's San Antonio District Office, which filed the
lawsuit. "In this case, UIW compounded its unlawful conduct by harassing the Hispanic employees
who could not comply with the policy. This settlement should put other employers on notice that
the EEOC is committed to rooting out discrimination against low-wage earners, language
minorities, and other groups most vulnerable to civil rights abuses."

In its suit against UIW, EEOC alleged that a class of 18 Hispanic housekeepers were
subjected to an unlawful English-only policy and severe and pervasive harassment for over 10 years
on the basis of national origin. UIW's Director of Housekeeping prohibited the housekeepers from
speaking Spanish and required that they speak only English in the workplace at all times, even
while at lunch and during employee breaks.

According to the suit, some of the UIW employees spoke little or no English, others
testified that Spanish was their primary language even though they were born in the United States,
while other employees were bilingual. The workers complained that they had difficulty complying
with the rule because they did not speak English or unconsciously lapsed into Spanish when
conversing with same language peers. Nevertheless, employees who failed to comply with the
English-only policy were subjected to repeated verbal and physical abuse, as well as ethnic slurs.

EEOC has observed an increasing trend of charge filings alleging English-only violations
since the Commission began separately tracking such charges in the mid-1990s. The number of
English-only charges filed with EEOC and state and local Fair Employment Practices Agencies
have increased by nearly 500% from 91 such charges in Fiscal Year 1996 to 443 charges in FY
2000. EEOC's policy on English-only rules is set out in its Guidelines on Discrimination Because
of National Origin (29 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1606) which, along with other
information about the Commission, is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov.

In addition to enforcing Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race,
color, religion, sex or national origin, EEOC enforces the Age Discrimination in Employment Act;
the Equal Pay Act; Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits employment
discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments;
prohibitions against discrimination affecting individuals with disabilities in the federal government;
and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.